New curriculum selection process delayed— new RFP must be issues now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder if any of these Central Office folks have kids in the system, because they don't seem to have any sense of urgency about all of this.

The current curriculum is broken, and kids are losing YEARS because of what? Corruption, greed, and inadequate oversight?

Lang should be ashamed of what he has done, and Discovery should be drummed out of the market.

As an employee, I'm so disheartened that we have to do yet ANOTHER year of this curriculum that does not adequately prepare our students for the external measures we are held to - PARCC and MAP. More importantly, without significant supplementing I know it doesn't provide students what they need. It's hard to stay positive when you know we're doing a disservice to our students.

x100 - our required summer reading trainings this summer keep telling us all of these things we should be doing but the curriculum doesn't mention them and our schools aren't equipped with the materials to provide what students need. When the poor facilitators are asked how to address the hurdles, they shrug their shoulders and say "that's a great question, put it in the bin." It's going to be a long year.

Serious question for the teacher posters -- what can you do to address some of the mandates coming from up above that you know harm students? What are the avenues available to you to push back when your own bosses are creating the problems?

Honestly, you nod your head in agreement during staff meetings and then go back to your classrooms, close the doors, and continue to do what you know is right for kids. I'm lucky in that my administration knows things are a joke right now in the county and trusts that we will do what we need to do for the kids. I've worked for other principals where you have to follow these mandates to the letter or risk being written up. I did my summer reading training and now the new message is that guided reading groups are supposed to be an intervention. Students shouldn't need to be in guided groups everyday on their reading level. Instead, all students should be reading grade-level text. While this would be great in theory, I have fifth graders come to me who read on a 2nd grade level. They won't be able to access a level T text without significant scaffolding and support from me...during small group instruction. So basically, I'm going to do my best to expose all of my kids to grade-level text this year via read-alouds but I'll still be pulling small, leveled groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder if any of these Central Office folks have kids in the system, because they don't seem to have any sense of urgency about all of this.

The current curriculum is broken, and kids are losing YEARS because of what? Corruption, greed, and inadequate oversight?

Lang should be ashamed of what he has done, and Discovery should be drummed out of the market.

It is more than apparent that they DO NOT care. At all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder if any of these Central Office folks have kids in the system, because they don't seem to have any sense of urgency about all of this.

The current curriculum is broken, and kids are losing YEARS because of what? Corruption, greed, and inadequate oversight?

Lang should be ashamed of what he has done, and Discovery should be drummed out of the market.

As an employee, I'm so disheartened that we have to do yet ANOTHER year of this curriculum that does not adequately prepare our students for the external measures we are held to - PARCC and MAP. More importantly, without significant supplementing I know it doesn't provide students what they need. It's hard to stay positive when you know we're doing a disservice to our students.

x100 - our required summer reading trainings this summer keep telling us all of these things we should be doing but the curriculum doesn't mention them and our schools aren't equipped with the materials to provide what students need. When the poor facilitators are asked how to address the hurdles, they shrug their shoulders and say "that's a great question, put it in the bin." It's going to be a long year.

Serious question for the teacher posters -- what can you do to address some of the mandates coming from up above that you know harm students? What are the avenues available to you to push back when your own bosses are creating the problems?

Honestly, you nod your head in agreement during staff meetings and then go back to your classrooms, close the doors, and continue to do what you know is right for kids. I'm lucky in that my administration knows things are a joke right now in the county and trusts that we will do what we need to do for the kids. I've worked for other principals where you have to follow these mandates to the letter or risk being written up. I did my summer reading training and now the new message is that guided reading groups are supposed to be an intervention. Students shouldn't need to be in guided groups everyday on their reading level. Instead, all students should be reading grade-level text. While this would be great in theory, I have fifth graders come to me who read on a 2nd grade level. They won't be able to access a level T text without significant scaffolding and support from me...during small group instruction. So basically, I'm going to do my best to expose all of my kids to grade-level text this year via read-alouds but I'll still be pulling small, leveled groups.

DP, but that is infuriating. Such a joke.

We’re at a FOCUS school and it would be nuts to expect all the Fifth graders to be at the correct level. Glad you at least have a decent principal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder if any of these Central Office folks have kids in the system, because they don't seem to have any sense of urgency about all of this.

The current curriculum is broken, and kids are losing YEARS because of what? Corruption, greed, and inadequate oversight?

Lang should be ashamed of what he has done, and Discovery should be drummed out of the market.

As an employee, I'm so disheartened that we have to do yet ANOTHER year of this curriculum that does not adequately prepare our students for the external measures we are held to - PARCC and MAP. More importantly, without significant supplementing I know it doesn't provide students what they need. It's hard to stay positive when you know we're doing a disservice to our students.

x100 - our required summer reading trainings this summer keep telling us all of these things we should be doing but the curriculum doesn't mention them and our schools aren't equipped with the materials to provide what students need. When the poor facilitators are asked how to address the hurdles, they shrug their shoulders and say "that's a great question, put it in the bin." It's going to be a long year.

Serious question for the teacher posters -- what can you do to address some of the mandates coming from up above that you know harm students? What are the avenues available to you to push back when your own bosses are creating the problems?

Honestly, you nod your head in agreement during staff meetings and then go back to your classrooms, close the doors, and continue to do what you know is right for kids. I'm lucky in that my administration knows things are a joke right now in the county and trusts that we will do what we need to do for the kids. I've worked for other principals where you have to follow these mandates to the letter or risk being written up. I did my summer reading training and now the new message is that guided reading groups are supposed to be an intervention. Students shouldn't need to be in guided groups everyday on their reading level. Instead, all students should be reading grade-level text. While this would be great in theory, I have fifth graders come to me who read on a 2nd grade level. They won't be able to access a level T text without significant scaffolding and support from me...during small group instruction. So basically, I'm going to do my best to expose all of my kids to grade-level text this year via read-alouds but I'll still be pulling small, leveled groups.

Does that mean that kids who read ahead of grade level aren’t supposed to get anything but grade level texts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder if any of these Central Office folks have kids in the system, because they don't seem to have any sense of urgency about all of this.

The current curriculum is broken, and kids are losing YEARS because of what? Corruption, greed, and inadequate oversight?

Lang should be ashamed of what he has done, and Discovery should be drummed out of the market.

As an employee, I'm so disheartened that we have to do yet ANOTHER year of this curriculum that does not adequately prepare our students for the external measures we are held to - PARCC and MAP. More importantly, without significant supplementing I know it doesn't provide students what they need. It's hard to stay positive when you know we're doing a disservice to our students.

x100 - our required summer reading trainings this summer keep telling us all of these things we should be doing but the curriculum doesn't mention them and our schools aren't equipped with the materials to provide what students need. When the poor facilitators are asked how to address the hurdles, they shrug their shoulders and say "that's a great question, put it in the bin." It's going to be a long year.

Serious question for the teacher posters -- what can you do to address some of the mandates coming from up above that you know harm students? What are the avenues available to you to push back when your own bosses are creating the problems?

Honestly, you nod your head in agreement during staff meetings and then go back to your classrooms, close the doors, and continue to do what you know is right for kids. I'm lucky in that my administration knows things are a joke right now in the county and trusts that we will do what we need to do for the kids. I've worked for other principals where you have to follow these mandates to the letter or risk being written up. I did my summer reading training and now the new message is that guided reading groups are supposed to be an intervention. Students shouldn't need to be in guided groups everyday on their reading level. Instead, all students should be reading grade-level text. While this would be great in theory, I have fifth graders come to me who read on a 2nd grade level. They won't be able to access a level T text without significant scaffolding and support from me...during small group instruction. So basically, I'm going to do my best to expose all of my kids to grade-level text this year via read-alouds but I'll still be pulling small, leveled groups.

DP, but that is infuriating. Such a joke.

We’re at a FOCUS school and it would be nuts to expect all the Fifth graders to be at the correct level. Glad you at least have a decent principal.

You’re lucky. My principal wouldn’t have the balls to stand up to central. So many frightened admins right now. They’ll go down with the sinking ship if they don’t start insisting on ethical practices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder if any of these Central Office folks have kids in the system, because they don't seem to have any sense of urgency about all of this.

The current curriculum is broken, and kids are losing YEARS because of what? Corruption, greed, and inadequate oversight?

Lang should be ashamed of what he has done, and Discovery should be drummed out of the market.

As an employee, I'm so disheartened that we have to do yet ANOTHER year of this curriculum that does not adequately prepare our students for the external measures we are held to - PARCC and MAP. More importantly, without significant supplementing I know it doesn't provide students what they need. It's hard to stay positive when you know we're doing a disservice to our students.

x100 - our required summer reading trainings this summer keep telling us all of these things we should be doing but the curriculum doesn't mention them and our schools aren't equipped with the materials to provide what students need. When the poor facilitators are asked how to address the hurdles, they shrug their shoulders and say "that's a great question, put it in the bin." It's going to be a long year.

Serious question for the teacher posters -- what can you do to address some of the mandates coming from up above that you know harm students? What are the avenues available to you to push back when your own bosses are creating the problems?

Honestly, you nod your head in agreement during staff meetings and then go back to your classrooms, close the doors, and continue to do what you know is right for kids. I'm lucky in that my administration knows things are a joke right now in the county and trusts that we will do what we need to do for the kids. I've worked for other principals where you have to follow these mandates to the letter or risk being written up. I did my summer reading training and now the new message is that guided reading groups are supposed to be an intervention. Students shouldn't need to be in guided groups everyday on their reading level. Instead, all students should be reading grade-level text. While this would be great in theory, I have fifth graders come to me who read on a 2nd grade level. They won't be able to access a level T text without significant scaffolding and support from me...during small group instruction. So basically, I'm going to do my best to expose all of my kids to grade-level text this year via read-alouds but I'll still be pulling small, leveled groups.

Does that mean that kids who read ahead of grade level aren’t supposed to get anything but grade level texts?

NP who also went to the foundational skills reading training. It's "rich text", not specifically grade level text. The example given in the training was to read excerpts from Charlotte's Web to Kindergarteners. There is no resource like a list of which texts should be read for which grade levels so it seems to be up to the teacher's discretion. The issue is that there aren't all that many resources in schools because the focus has been on leveled readers for so long, so once grade level teams decide which books to read aloud they'll have to share among classrooms. Also, just like pretty much anything else, principals have discretion to override the county's message to switch to this model.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder if any of these Central Office folks have kids in the system, because they don't seem to have any sense of urgency about all of this.

The current curriculum is broken, and kids are losing YEARS because of what? Corruption, greed, and inadequate oversight?

Lang should be ashamed of what he has done, and Discovery should be drummed out of the market.

As an employee, I'm so disheartened that we have to do yet ANOTHER year of this curriculum that does not adequately prepare our students for the external measures we are held to - PARCC and MAP. More importantly, without significant supplementing I know it doesn't provide students what they need. It's hard to stay positive when you know we're doing a disservice to our students.

x100 - our required summer reading trainings this summer keep telling us all of these things we should be doing but the curriculum doesn't mention them and our schools aren't equipped with the materials to provide what students need. When the poor facilitators are asked how to address the hurdles, they shrug their shoulders and say "that's a great question, put it in the bin." It's going to be a long year.

Serious question for the teacher posters -- what can you do to address some of the mandates coming from up above that you know harm students? What are the avenues available to you to push back when your own bosses are creating the problems?

Honestly, you nod your head in agreement during staff meetings and then go back to your classrooms, close the doors, and continue to do what you know is right for kids. I'm lucky in that my administration knows things are a joke right now in the county and trusts that we will do what we need to do for the kids. I've worked for other principals where you have to follow these mandates to the letter or risk being written up. I did my summer reading training and now the new message is that guided reading groups are supposed to be an intervention. Students shouldn't need to be in guided groups everyday on their reading level. Instead, all students should be reading grade-level text. While this would be great in theory, I have fifth graders come to me who read on a 2nd grade level. They won't be able to access a level T text without significant scaffolding and support from me...during small group instruction. So basically, I'm going to do my best to expose all of my kids to grade-level text this year via read-alouds but I'll still be pulling small, leveled groups.

Does that mean that kids who read ahead of grade level aren’t supposed to get anything but grade level texts?

NP who also went to the foundational skills reading training. It's "rich text", not specifically grade level text. The example given in the training was to read excerpts from Charlotte's Web to Kindergarteners. There is no resource like a list of which texts should be read for which grade levels so it seems to be up to the teacher's discretion. The issue is that there aren't all that many resources in schools because the focus has been on leveled readers for so long, so once grade level teams decide which books to read aloud they'll have to share among classrooms. Also, just like pretty much anything else, principals have discretion to override the county's message to switch to this model.

NP here - I went to the Grades 3 - 5 reading training and like the pp mentioned, the emphasis was definitely on complex, grade-level text. Doing a lot of scaffolding for students reading below grade level via close reading. Like someone just mentioned, there's going to have to be a lot of sharing of materials because of the emphasis on guided reading levels for so long in MCPS. I can already see my teammates and I sharing the same book and sending it down the hall. Such a PITA.

[Anonymous]

Can you put an an SOS out to the PTA? Maybe some parents could help inexpensively source books?

[Anonymous]

Interesting that Erick Lang's name hasn't shown up yet on the Discovery Education site. I wonder if they got cold feet. He is listed as a lecturer for AU...

https://www.discoveryeducation.com/who-we-are/meet-the-curriculum-team/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that Erick Lang's name hasn't shown up yet on the Discovery Education site. I wonder if they got cold feet. He is listed as a lecturer for AU...

https://www.discoveryeducation.com/who-we-are/meet-the-curriculum-team/

Well we know that Discovery Education is a joke and should not be considered for our new curriculum. Check out the description for Marty Creel, the Chief Academic Officer, who previously was Head of Curriculum in MCPS until 2015. According to the link above he describes himself: "As a district-wide curriculum, instruction, and professional development leader in a large urban/suburban school system he was the architect for a thoughtful transition to instructional standards that empower teachers and principals as instructional leaders." So, who do we let know, that we don't want the clowns who designed and implemented the last curriculum to be designing the new one.

[Anonymous]

Anyone have any insights on when kids will actually receive the new curriculum? Maria Navarro said in her email said they were starting the selection process at the beginning of the school year, but it wasn't clear to me whether that meant they'll start thinking about the RFP in september when they were back from vacation or actually issue the RFP in september.

[Anonymous]

we're staying in Montessori for K. if mcps can't give any clarity on this crap we're applying for catholic school in November. Ride out elementary school there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have any insights on when kids will actually receive the new curriculum? Maria Navarro said in her email said they were starting the selection process at the beginning of the school year, but it wasn't clear to me whether that meant they'll start thinking about the RFP in september when they were back from vacation or actually issue the RFP in september.

Central Office employees are 12 month employees, so they work throughout the summer. That's why the timing of everything is strange.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we're staying in Montessori for K. if mcps can't give any clarity on this crap we're applying for catholic school in November. Ride out elementary school there.

We’re staying in our preschool for K and will be applying for private for 1st if MCPS can’t get their act together by then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we're staying in Montessori for K. if mcps can't give any clarity on this crap we're applying for catholic school in November. Ride out elementary school there.

We’re staying in our preschool for K and will be applying for private for 1st if MCPS can’t get their act together by then.

you do realize that only a subset of schools will pilot the curriculum even when it's chosen (so those of you opting to stay in private may not see any movement for a while anyway). oh well, less overcrowding for us MCPS parents.